UUSB   LIBRARY 


A     PLEA 

FOR 

LIBERTY   OF   CONSCIENCE, 

AND 

PERSONAL    FREEDOM 

FROM 

MILITARY  CONSCRIPTION 

IN  LETTERS  TO 
THOMAS  LORING,  ESQ. 


BY    JOSHUA    WILDER. 


A    PLACE    FOR    EVERY     MEMBER    IN    THE    BOOT,    AND    ALSO    IN 
THE  BODY  POLITIC AND  EVERY  MEMBER  IN    ITS  PLACE. 


HIXGHAM  : 

PRINTED    BY     J.    FARMER. 
JANUARY,   1840. 


PREFACE. 

IN  addressing  these  Letters  to  you,  Sir,  I  have  endeavored 
to  fulfill  the  duty  that  I  voluntarily  took  upon  myself,  some 
time  since,  in  the  very  short  interview  that  took  place  be- 
tween us  ;  when,  on  your  asking  of  me  what  were  my  views 
on  the  question  of  excusing  from  Military  Service  those  per- 
sons who  could  not  conscientiously  do  such  duties,  I  replied, 
that  as  my  views  on  the  subject  were  somewhat  different 
from  the  most  commonly  received  opinions,  I  would  endea- 
vor, if  I  could  find  opportunity,  to  write  out  my  mind  there- 
on ;  and,  also,  on  the  subject  of  having  in  the  State  none 
other  than  a  Volunteer  Military  Corps,  to  be  paid  for  their 
services.  But,  in  addressing  these  Letters  to  you,  Sir,  I  am 
far  from  supposing  that  you  favor  the  views  that  I  have  here 
expressed,  excepting  on  the  rights  of  conscience,  which  you 
hold  sacred,  as  you  have  shown  by  your  noble  and  praise- 
worthy defence  thereof,  made  in  the  Legislature  of  the  State, 
at  its  session  of  1839  ;  for  which  you  have  my  grateful 
regard. 

The  Letters  are  of  greater  length  than  I  had  supposed 
would  be  necessary,  to  illustrate  my  views  with  argument,  on 
these  subjects.  A  better  tact  at  writing,  would  have  enabled 
me  to  make  them  much  shorter ;  but,  as  I  could  apply  no 
more  talent  to  the  work  than  what  I  possessed,  I  shall  sub- 
mit them  to  you,  Sir,  to  make  such  use  of  them  as  you  may 
deern  proper ;  hoping  that  they  will  not  meet  with  sudden 
destruction,  nor  any,  until  the  sentiments  they  contain  shall 
be  more  generally  known  ;  and,  as  far  as  they  may  be  right, 
acknowledged. 


LETTER   I. 

HAVING  made  some  prefatory  remarks,  I  shall 
now  commence  my  plea  for  the  rights  of  the  consci- 
entiously scrupulous,  and  all  others,  to  whom  the 
personal  service  of  Military  duty  is  a  burthen  ;  and 
then  proceed  to  offer  arguments  in  favor  of  estab- 
lishing the  Military  Corps  of  the  State,  upon  Volun- 
teer enlistments,  and  an  equitable  compensation 
for  services. 

And,  here  I  shall  state  distinctly,  and  unequivo- 
cally, that  it  is  my  belief,  that  a  Government  of 
Laws,  and  of  Civil  Officers  to  execute  them,  and  a 
Military  establishment,  to  add  strength  and  power 
to  the  civil  authorities,  when  resisted  by  violence 
at  home  or  abroad,  are  necessary,  in  the  present 
existing  state  of  the  world.  That  it  will  always 
continue  to  be  so,  is  more  than  I  believe  any  per- 
son knows  ;  nor  is  it  necessary  for  my  present  pur- 
pose here  to  consider. 

Having  endeavored  to  base  some  of  my  arguments 
on  Bible  authority,  I  shall  here  say,  that  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  especially 
those  of  the  New,  are  admitted,  by  the  most  civil- 
ized nations,  as  the  best  written  rules,  taken  as  a 
whole,  by  which  to  model  and  subject  to  action,  our 
Moral  sentiments  ;  and  every  man  in  this  State, 
who  honestly  governs  himself  as  he  believes  the 
Scriptures  dictate  to  him,  stands  acquitted  to  his 
1* 


Creator,  and  also  to  the  reflecting-,  sober,  upright 
part  of  the  community  that  know  him.  Why  is  it 
so  ?  Surely  not  because  his  particular  views  of 
faith  and  practice  are  to  be  taken  as  rules  or  models, 
by  which  a  whole  community,  or  perhaps  any  few 
members  of  it,  will  find  it  their  duty  to  be  govern- 
ed ; — jt  is  rather  because  he  appears  to  aim  to  walk 
uprightly,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  as  he  under- 
stands them — and  what  makes  it  more  evident,  that 
the  Moral  sentiment,  of  the  thinking,  sober  and  in- 
telligent part  of  civilized  communities,  is  founded 
on,  or  drawn  from  the  Moral  sentiment  made  man- 
ifest in  the  Scriptures,  especially  the  New  Testa- 
ment, is,  that  when  any  great  moral  question  is  be- 
ing discussed,  an  appeal  is  made  directly  to  the 
Christian  Scriptures,  for,  or  against,  the  controvert- 
ed points  ;  and  their  authority  is  but  seldom  ques- 
tioned, even  by  those  who  disbelieve  their  being 
of  divine  origin.  Their  pure  and  highly  elevated 
moral  tone  commands  the  respect  of  most  men  who 
are  desirous  of  establishing  order  and  harmony 
among  the  dwellings  of  men  on  earth. 

The  foregoing  remarks  on  the  authority  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  a  governing  rule,  to  those  who  re- 
ceive them  as  such,  being  admitted,  I  shall,  in  the 
remarks  that  I  shall  hereafter  make  on  my  propos- 
ed subject,  regard  every  person's  conscience,  which 
appears  io  have  been  formed  by  any  Moral  senti- 
ments drawn  from  the  Bible,  and  more  especially 
from  the  New  Testament,  as  sacred  to  him  that 
holds  it,  as  is  the  temple  of  God,  which  none  can 
with  impunity  defile  ;  and  so  I  would,  also,  every 


other  person's  conscience,  even  if  it  were  formed 
in  the  worship  of  idols. 

Here  a  question  may  be  asked — Can  persons 
conscienti6usly  differing  in  their  apprehensions  of 
duty  be  right  ?  I  answer  yes — not  only  as  they  are 
individually  affected,  but  also  as  such  differing  may 
effect  the  greatest  good  of  the  whole.  There  is  no 
more  necessity  that  they  should  think,  or  believe 
alike,  or  act  alike,  to  constitute  them  upright,  hon- 
est men,  promoting  their  own  and  the  world's  great- 
est good,  than  there  is  for  them  to  look  alike,  or 
speak  alike,  and  to  eat  and  drink  and  labour  alike, 
and  so  on,  to  make  them  equally  happy  and  equally 
as  useful  in  the  society  where  they  reside.  As  no 
t.wo  persons  are  ever,  in  every  particular  form  and 
circumstance,  alike,  we  must  consent  to  think  and 
act  somewhat  differently,  to  effect  the  most  good  to 
ourselves  and  the  community.  That  our  very  dif- 
fering views,  condition  and  circumstances,  are  in 
some  respects  the  result  of  our,  or  of  others  vices, 
is  very  true  ;  and  so  also  are  many  of  the  pains  and 
afflictions  that  variously  befall  us.  If  we  are  free 
from  superstition  and  pride  of  character,  and  al- 
ways act  honestly,  we  shall  often,  in  the  judgment 
of  others,  appear  to  believe,  and  to  act,  inconsist- 
ent with  ourselves,  others  not  knowing  our  prog- 
ress, and,  what  is  more  controlling,  our,  and  the 
world's,  actual  change  of  circumstances  ;  therefore 
it  was,  as  I  believe,  that  our  Lord  taught  his  Dis- 
ciples to  "judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged."  Crim- 
inating others  begets  the  spirit  of  recrimination  in 
them  ;  and  thus,  the  beginning  of  warrings,  and 
the  destruction,  often  terrible,  that  follows. 


8 

Our  Lord  taught  his  Disciples  by  general  princi- 
ples, never  binding  them  to  any  one  formal  line  of 
conduct  or  of  worship,  but  ever  holding  them  bound 
to  abide  in  "Supreme  Love  to  God,"  and  unfeigned 
"good  will  to  men."  And  I  shall  here  say,  that  I 
believe  there  may  be  circumstances,  when  Christ's 
disciples  might  find  it  their  duty,  to  arm  themselves 
with  carnal  weapons,  even  when  Supreme  Love  to 
God  and  good  will  to  men,  controlled  their  every 
action — as  in  obedience  to  the  command  of  Christ, 
did  his  disciples  of  old  sell  their  garments  to 
purchase  them  swords  ;  suffering  them,  also,  to 
use  them,  (or  one  of  them,)  to  the  shedding  of  hu- 
man blood  ;  commanding  them  at  the  proper  time 
to  "put  up  the  sword  into  its  sheath  ;"  healing  all 
the  evils  or  wounds  which  his  disciple  had  been 
suffered  to  inflict,  by  his  permit ;  instructing  them 
also,  that  those  that  had  recourse  to  the  sword, 
would  be  likely  to  perish  by  it. 


LETTER   II. 

Believing,  as  I  do,  that  our  Lord  taught  his  chos- 
en Disciples,  to  suffer  wrong  without  repelling  the 
wrong  doer  by  physical  means,  I  cannot  but  believe 
that  the  work  of  redeeming  man  from  his  uncon- 
trolled lust  and  passion  to  injure  his  fellow  man, 
will  be  far  better  promoted.,  by  them,  in  observing 
the  non-resistance  'doctrines  in  their  practice  as 
well  as  by  their  precepts  ;  therefore,  laws  that 
would  make  any  of  those  persons  at  this  day  do  mil- 


9 

itary  service,  who  believe  it  their  duty  to  promul- 
gate the  non-resistance  doctrines  as  taught  by  our 
Lord,  either  by  precept  or  by  example,  \yill  tend, 
so  far  as  said  laws  can,  to  destroy  not  only  the 
liberty  of  certain  subjects  of  the  State  to  worship 
God  as  conscience  dictates,  but  also  to  counteract 
the  best  means  of  converting  the  ignorant  and  in- 
considerate, who  are  disposed  hastily  to  resort  to 
deeds  of  violence  (to  redress  some  supposed  or  real 
injury)  from  the  evil  of  their  way,  to  a  more  peace- 
ful adjustment  of  their  real  or  supposed  wrongs. 

But,  say  those  who  do  not  believe  it  to  be  their 
duty  to  submit  to  an  insult  without  seeking  revenge, 
not  having  so  "learned  Christ,"  Who  shall  exe- 
cute the  law  upon  the  lawless,  and  upon  the  vio- 
laters  of  the  rights  of  others  ?  Shall  they  go  un- 
punished ?  I  answer,  no.  But  before  I  make  it  the 
duty  of  some  to  execute  the  law,  as  ministers  of 
righteousness,.  I  will  endeavor  to  show,  that  it  is 
physically,  and  morally  certain,  that  there  are 
those  to  whom  it  does  not  belong.  That  many  are 
physically  disabled  from  becoming  personally  the 
executors  of  the  most  righteous  of  laws,  needs  no 
illustration.  The  best  means  to  relieve  them  from 
a  burthen  that  they  are  not  qualified  to  bear,  will 
be  a  subject  for  discussion  hereafter. 

That  some  persons  are  morally  disqualified  to 
perform  certain  acts,  is  clear  ;  and  among  those  acts 
is  that  of  executing  vengeance,  by  the  order  of  oth- 
ers, upon  persons  that  they  may  believe  have  brok- 
en no  righteous  law,  or  if  having  broken  some  law, 
that  they  were  ignorant  of  it ;  and  therefore  in  their 


10     • 

circumstances  they  could  not  have  done  otherwise. 
To  such,  the  moral  sentiment  of  some  persons  would 
bind  them  to  show  no  other  offensive  or  defensive 
weapons  than  kindness,  and  unfeigned  forgiveness, 
in  the  holy  spirit  of  charity,  believing  ourselves  (for 
the  writer  of  this  does  believe  himself)  bound  by 
the  precepts  and  practice  of  our  Lord  to  forgive  our 
enemies,  and  do  "good  to  those  that  hate  us,"  hav- 
ing entire  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  God,  as  man- 
ifested in  the  Gospel,  thus  to  promote  the  greatest 
happiness  of  both  parties  concerned. 

We  also  believe  that  the  good  to  be  gained  by 
two  belligerent  persons,  or  nations,  practicing  on 
the  precepts  of  our  Lord,  to  be  many  fold  greater 
than  it  would  be  if  the  parties  were  to  seek  ven- 
geance and  persue  it,  as  is  most  commonly  practis- 
ed, till  the  weaker  of  the  two  yields  from  necessity, 
some  matter  of  the  dispute,  recruiting  again,  per- 
haps, for  another  contest. 

There  are  many  of  us  holding  the  non-resisting 
opinions,  that  believe  without  the  shadow  of  doubt, 
that  there  has  ever  existed,  and  that  there  ever 
will  continue  to  exist,  an  omniscient  and  an  omni- 
present God,  and  that  man  is  his  offspring,  and  as 
such,  we  are  in  duty  bound  to  devote  every  power 
and  faculty  that  he  has  epdowed  us  with,  in  obedi- 
ence to  what  we  believe  he  requires  of  us.  Very 
many  of  such  are  morally  incapable  of  uttering  a 
falsehood,  knowing  it  to  be  such,  and  of  taking  the 
name  of  the  Lord  our  God  in  vain,  and  of  doing  very 
many  other  acts  which  we  believe  are  expressly 
forbidden  by  him.  And,  why  is  it  that  so  many  of 


11 

the  devoted  children  of  their  Creator,  have  been, 
and  continue  to  be,  ready  to  suffer  every  torture 
that  human  invention  can  inflict,  and  even  death 
itself,  rather  than  do  that  which  they  believe  their 
Creator  forbids  ?  It  is  not  because  it  is  gratifying 
to  any  of  their  natural  propensities  or  carnal  desires 
thus  to  suffer.  It  must  be  because  they  believe, 
and  believe  too,  without  the  shadow  of  a  doubt, 
that  if  they  forsake  the  truth,  and  their  duty,  as 
they  understand  it,  that  God  will  not  hold  them 
guiltless. 

And  can  it  be  through  weakness,  or  self-will,  or 
the  want  of  honesty,  or  by  darkness  and  delusion, 
or  from  any  unjustifiable  cause,  that  those  who  have 
offered  themselves  up,  to  do  in  all  things,  and  at  all 
times  without  reserve,  the  will  of  their  Creator,  as 
made  known  through  the  Gospel  of  his  Son,  should 
misunderstand  so  plain  a  precept  as  the  following, 
given  by  our  Lord  to  his  disciples,  c:But  I  say  unto 
you  love  your  enemies  ;  bless  them  that  curse  you, 
do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them 
that  dispitefully  use  you,  and  persecute  you  ;"  and 
also  very  many  other  commands  equally  plain  and 
binding  on  the  consciences  of  devoted  persons  who 
have  such  precepts  engraven  on  their  hearts,  as 
they  believe,  by  the  finger  of  God  ?  Is  it  strange 
that  they  should  refuse  to  learn  the  art  of  war,  the 
most  expert  method  to  execute  vengeance  and  death 
upon  an  enemy,  whom  by  the  command  of  the 
Lord  and  Saviour,  whom  they  serve,  they  are 
taught  to  love,  and  to  do  acts  of  kindness  to,  rath- 
er than  injury  ?  Certainly  not.  Self  interest  or 


12 

personal  gratification,  the  fountains  from  which  de- 
lusion and  consequent  weakness  and  death  are 
drank,  has  little  or  no  controlling-  influence  on  per- 
sons thus  governed  by  moral  principle,  and  abiding 
the  issue  for  life  or  death.  Some  will  say  that  such 
conscientious  persons  are  deluded,  and  wrong  in 
their  belief.  I  would  ask  such,  if  they  have  the 
means  of  convincing  them  of  their  error,  or  chang- 
ing their  belief  ?  Can  you  do  it  by  giving  them  the 
New  Testament  to  read  ?  With  the  language  and 
spirit  of  this  book,  they  are  much  acquainted.  It 
is  morally  impossible  for  them  to  alter  their  belief, 
or  change  their  practice,  and  be  sincere  and  honest 
in  their  devotions,  until  some  new  light  or  evident 
truth  dawns  upon  their  mind,  revealing  to  them  a 
better  and  more  perfect  way.  We  cannot  create 
belief  or  faith  ;  it  is  the  gift  of  our  Creator.  We 
can  govern  ourselves  by  its  evidence,  and  thereby 
maintain  a  good  conscience,  and  we  can  reject  its 
moral  suasion,  and  thus  make  shipwreck  of  "faith 
and  a  good  conscience."  Therefore,  until  some- 
thing shall  be  done  that  will  change  the  belief  of 
persons  who  think  that  they  ought  not  to  learn  the 
art  of  war,  it  will  avail  nothing  to  compel  them  to 
learn  it,  and,  thereby  violate  their  more  than  con- 
stitutional rights — rights  that  existed  prior  to  any 
written  compacts,  and,  also,  to  the  time  when  men 
forsook  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God,  and 
sought  out  many  inventions,  substituting  their 
might  as  a  rule  of  right,  rather  than  allowing  to  all 
their  inalienable  right  to  serve  God  as  they  believe 
he  requires  them. 


It  cannot  be  thought  strange  at  the  present  day 
that  persons  can  he  found  amon<r  many  of  the  Chris- 
tian sects  acknowledging-  the  Mew  Testament  as  a 
guide,  who  believe  that  the  Creator  of  man  has 
destined  him  to  become  in  morals,  more  perfect 
than  in  ages  past,  or  in  the  present  age.  Believing 
thus,  they  see,  or  think  they  see,  the  wisdom  of 
Christ  in  giving  us  the  precept,  "  love*  your  ene- 
mies,'' £c.,  olfering  as  a  reason,  that  "  ye  may  be 
the  children  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven." 

The  faith  of  reflecting  Christians  is  made  strong- 
er by  arguments  drawn  from  the  philosophy  of 
Christianity,  or  the  reasonableness  of  the  precepts 
it  inculcates,  to  render  good  for  evil.  It  being  evi- 
dent that  when  two  persons  or  nations,  differ,  each 
party  is  frequently  in  the  wrong,  through  the  cov- 
etousness  or  ignorance,  perhaps,  of  both  ;  conse- 
quently neither  the  one  nor  the  other  party  has 
justifiable  cause  for  molesting  or  injuring  the  other. 
And  what  will  restrain  violence  so  eliectuaily  as 
forbearance,  even  after  one  party  has  been  smitten 
on  the  cheek  by  the  other,  which  last  I  will  here 
admit  to  be  the  aggressor  ?  What  here  does  phi- 
losophy teach  us  ?  What  does  experience  teach  us? 
Does  it  teach  us  that  the  better  way  is  for  the  par- 
ty attacked  to  give  a  return  blow,  receiving  anoth- 
er, and  so  on,  until  each  party,  as  is  very  common- 
ly the  case,  becomes  so  exhausted  and  tired  of  the 
contest  as  to  be  willing  to  cease  from  its  work  of 
death  and  leave  the  disputed  points  as  they  found 
them  ;  or  does  it  teach  us  that  forbearance,  and  per- 
haps a  long  or  a  short  discussion  at  the  commence- 


ment  of  their  dilTerings,  would  have  shown,  if  not 
clearly,  yet  in  a  good  measure,  the  merits  and  er- 
rors of  each,  and  brought  to  the  party  that  mostly 
coveted  the  rights  of  the  other,  the  greater  con- 
demnation ? 


LETTER  III. 

In  this  letter,  I  shall  make  some  comments  on 
what  I  believe  to  be  Anti-Christian  in  the  practice 
and  professions  of  some  Christian  sects,  and  also  of 
many  individuals,  who,  not  regarding  the  precept 
of  Christ  against  swearing,  have,  as  I  believe,  in- 
considerately retained  the  practice  of  not  only  binding 
themselves  in  Creeds,  and  by  Vows,  but  also  in  their 
intercourse  with  men,  as  when  they  assert  without 
reserve  that  they  will,  or  that  they  will  not,  do  this 
or  that.  Any  positive  assertions  made,  or  religious 
Vo\vs  taken  upon  us,  are  as  binding  as  would  be  an 
Oath,  and  are  the  substance  of  an  oath  ;  which  our 
Lord  gave  his  disciples  sufficient  reason  for  not  tak- 
ing upon  them,  the  substance  of  which  was,  that 
they  could  not  alter  any  of  the  works  of  God,  or  the 
la\vs  of  nature  ;  and  St.  James  adds  to  his  very  pos- 
itive injunctions  against  swearing,  "  lest  ye  fall  in- 
to condemnation."  We  cannot  control  circumstan- 
ces, but  they  are  ever  controlling  us.  I  may  have 
believed  it  to  have  been  my  duty,  to  have  taken  the 
profession  of  a  soldier,  and  sworn  to  the  faithful 
discharge  of  the  duties  of  the  profession,  but  some 
circumstances  occurring  that  I  did  not,  and  could 


15 

not  foresee,  may  have  been  the  means  of  enlight- 
ning  my  mind  on  the  impropriety  of  my  continuing 
bound  to  its  duties  ;  I  sue  for  a  discharge,  ahd  plead 
that  the  duties  of  my  profession  are  revolting  to  my 
humanity,  and  as  they  have  been  and  are  likely  to  be 
imposed  upon  me,  I  shall  be  the  instrument  of  doing 
to  my  fellow  men  much  more  harm  than  good.  But 
my  oath,  binding  me  to  the  service,  is  presented  to 
my  view,  and  in  it  I  read  my  condemnation  if  I  with- 
draw without  permit,  which  I  have  no  means  of 
obtaining  ;  and  to  continue  in  the  service,  in  any  of 
its  departments,  will  make  me  accessory  to  the 
deeds  of  murder  that  may  be  acted  ;  and  an  acces- 
sory I  can  no  longer  conscientiously  be,  and,  leav- 
ing the  service,  I  retire  with  all  the  condemnation 
that  my  broken  promise  brings  upon  me.  But  it  is 
our  duty  to  fulfill  every  engagement  that  we  may 
have  voluntarily  made,  so  far  as  it  depends  on  our 
personal  agency  unaffected  by  controlling  circum- 
stances. We  are  to  let  our  "  yea  be  yea,  and  -our 
nay  be  i: 

I  will  here  add  that  I  believe  no  person  can,  con- 
sistently with  the  commands  of  Christ  against 
swearing,  bind  himself  to  any  religious  creed  or  sect 
that  forbids  him,  under  all  circumstances,  to  use 
carnal  weapons.  For,  as  I  have  elsewhere  stated, 
our  Lord  did,  on  one  occasion,  arm  his  disciples, 
suffering  one  of  them  to  draw  and  use  his  sword  to 
the  shedding  of  human  blood. 

We  ought  not  to  be  bound  or  even  tramelled  by 
any  creed  or  to  any  society  that  would  limit  us  in 
the  freedom  of  our  consciences  to  serve  our  Creator 


16 

or  to  benefit  our  fellow  men  in  any  way  that  our 
understanding  m:iy  dictate  to  us  in  the  spirit  of 
charity.  Tin;  spirit  of  the  Gospel  goes  to  make 
every  man  a  n-holc  man,  a  perfect  man,  and  necessa- 
rily a  freeman  ;  being-  bound  to  do  nothing1  to  his 
fellow  men  that  he  cannot  do  in  the  spirit  of  love 
and  charity,  and  with  a  single  eye  to  the  divine 
will  of  his  Creator. 

Bind  men  to  Creeds  and  Forms,  and  they  soon 
become  measurably  satisfied  that  the  observance  of 
them  is  their  only  safe  road  to  salvation  ;  and 
their  eye,  that  may  have  been  single  to  the  will  of 
their  Creator,  as  manifested  to  them  from  time  to 
time,  and  "from  faith  to  faith,1'  will  be  moreorless 
withdrawn  therefrom  and  fixed  on  their  Creeds  and 
Forms.  They  will  make  l/tcin  their  image  of  God, 
and  worship  them  as  a  God  ;  having  turned  their 
eye  off  from  the  true  light,  that  lighteth  every  man 
that  cometh  into  the  world,  they  voluntarily,  (or 
through  the  "wiles  of  satan,")  have,  after  being 
once  made  free,  and  therefore  happy  in  the  full  en- 
joyment of  a  pure  and  upright  conscience,  held  sa- 
cred only  but  by  an  entirely  free  and  full  devotion, 
and  pure  worship  of  the  one  living  true  and  holy 
God  ;  in  which  spirit  of  devotion  and  pure  worship 
they  also  unfeignedly  served  their  fellow  men.  I 
say  they  have  again  (after  being  once  thus  made 
free)  taken  upon  them  a  yoke  of  bondage,  under 
the  slavery  of  which,  they  measurably  cease  to 
serve  or  worship  a  living  God  ;  and  are  thereby 
tramelled  in  their  usefulness  to  men. 

I  shall  now  quote  one  more  doctrinal  precept  of 


17 

our  Lord,  that  I  believe  tends  to  justify  many  per- 
sons from  becoming  military  men,  or  placinsr  them- 
selves liable  to  do  its  duties  :  "  Wherefore,  I  say 
unto  you,  all  manner  of  sin  and  blasphemy  shall  be 
forgiven  unto  men  ;  but  the  blasphemy  against  the 
Holy  Ghost  shall  not  be  forgiven  unto  men."  And 
••  whosoever  speaketh  a  word  against  the  Son  of 
Man,  it  shall  be  forgiven  him  ;  but  whosoever 
speaketh  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  shall  not  be 
forgiven  him,  neither  in  this  world,  neither  in  the 
world  to  come." 

This  doctrine,  to  me  certifies  positively,  that  no 
person  is  held  accountable  to  his  Creator  for  any 
other  sins  than  such  as  he  may  commit  against  a 
greater  or  a  less  degree  of  light,  affecting  his  -con- 
science ;  for,  in  another  precept,  Jesus  said,  that 
the  Comforter,  or  the  Holy  Ghost,  "will  reprove 
the  world  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness,  and  of 
judgment." 

Now  I  ask,  by  what  moral  law  do  Legislatures 
consign  to  misery  and  death  (in  the  destructive 
wars  which  they  carry  on)  so  many  of  their  fellow 
men,  and  men  too,  drawn  out  for  such  service 
against  their  wills,  and  often  against  their  moral 
sentiment  ?  They  are  pressed  on  by  their  superi- 
ors, to  face  danger  and  death,  to  effect  purposes, 
the  wickedness  of  which  their  better  judgments 
condemn,  knowing  well,  or  believing,  that  those 
who  may  be  designated  as  their  enemies,  have  been 
guilty  of  no  fault  deserving  violent  chastisement, 
much  less  sudden  death.  In  almost  all  wars,  con- 
ducted as  they  hive  been  in  ages  past  (but  I  am 


18 

happy  in  believing  much  less  so  in  the  present)  the 
innocent,  in  each  of  the  belligerent  parties,  are  as 
much  subjected  to  violent  chastisement  and  death 
as  arc  those  who  arc  the  most  guilty  promoters  of 
them.  Being  aware  that  if  we  consent  to  enroll 
ourselves  as  soldiers,  we  make  ourselves  liable  to 
become  partakers  with  the  State  in  her  sins,  the 
greatest  of  which  committed  in  her  wars,  is  the 
punishing  the  innocent  with  the  guilty,  we  shrink 
back  from  the  service,  holding  ourselves  the  ser- 
vants of  God  only,  and  not  the  servants  of  men  ; 
claiming  the  privilege  as  our  inalienable  right. 

I  am  aware  that  governments  presume  that  every 
person  found  in  arms,  (and  often  also  those  who  are 
not,")  if  not  for  them,  arc  against  them — having 
evil  intentions.  The  presumption  might  in  part  be 
admitted  if  none  but  Volunteers  in  either  of  thebel- 
ligerant  parties  were  made  subject  to  the  evils  of 
the  contest.  When  governments  shall  cease  to 
conscript  persons  into  their  military  ranks,  there 
may  be  less  complaint  of  the  wickedness  of  their 
wars. 

I  have  yet  one  greater  objection  to  wars,  and  to 
becoming  a  soldier,  drawn  also  from  the  foregoing 
precepts.  The  precept  instructs  me,  most  clearly, 
that  none  are  guilty,  and  therefore  that  none  ought 
to  be  punished,  excepting  those  who  disregard  the 
evidence  of  holy  truth,  enlightening  their  minds. 
As  /  may  not  know  or  believe  that  very  many  of 
the  denominated  enemy  have  ever  sinned  against 
any  light  that  has  manifested  to  them  the  right- 
eousness of  the  cause  that  I  may  be  designated  to 


19 

defend  and  fight  for,  how  can  I  become  God's  a- 
venger  on  those  that  I  have  no  evidence  he  has 
designated  as  guilty  of  any  crime  that  ought  not  to 
be  pardoned  ? 

AVere  a  public  officer  lo  show  me  a  person  of 
whom  he  was  in  pursuit,  that  I  had  good  cause  to 
believe  had,  in  violation  of  evidence  more  or  less 
clearly  manifest  in  his  mind,  committed  some  plun- 
der in  the  night,  or  violence  on  the  person  of  a  fel- 
low citizen,  requesting  me  to  assist  in  apprehend- 
ing him,  I  should  readily  exert  whatever  of  ability 
I  possessed  ;  and  if,  in  the  contest,  I  should  believe 
that  the  criminal  would  take  the  life  of  the  officer, 
unless  I  immediately  interposed  by  the  only  possi- 
ble alternative,  to  take  the  life  of  the  criminal,  I 
believe  that  it  would  be  my  duty  to  do  it,  and  I 
should  unhesitatingly  attempt  the  act.  I  should 
consider  the  officer  as  God's  agent,  and  appointed 
(in  the  supposed  case)  his  avenger,  and  that  his  life 
was  more  sacred  than  was  that  of  the  criminal. 
Not  that  I  admit  that  the  sanctity  of  the  office  of 
him  that  is  appointed  to  execute  the  law  sanctions 
his  every  act.  The  sanctity  of  the  office  is  created 
only  through  the  sacredness  of  the  orders  entrusted 
to  the  officer.  If  he  receive  unrighteous  orders, 
and  execute  them,  the  sanctity  of  his  office  ceases 
to  exist,  and  he  is  not  then  the  u  messenger  of  God 
to  us  for  good." 

I  have  extended  these  remarks  to  expose  the  fal- 
lacy of  the  excuse  often  made  by  inferior  officers 
for  executing  the  unrighteous  command  of  their 
superiors.  If  their  superiors  have  imposed  false 


20 

coin  upon  them,  then  on  their  heads  only  should  fall 
the  weight  of  the  blo\v. 

Having1  endeavored  to  give  you  some  of  my  rea- 
sons why  certain  persons  believe  that  they  are  not 
in  duty  bound  to  learn  or  to  practice  the  art  of  war, 
I  will  here  add  one  more,  that  those  who  are  read 
in  the  history  of  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  advance  as  a  further  confirmation  of  the 
correctness  of  their  views  and  conduct. 

Thomas  Clarkson,  in  his  Portraiture  of  Quaker- 
ism, vol.  3,  New  York,  1806,  has  quoted  largely 
from  very  many  of  the  early  Christian  writers,  show- 
ing most  conclusively,  that  almost  all  persons  who 
became  converts  to  Christianity,  for  the  first  two 
hundred  years,  relinquished  the  profession  of  arms; 
and  in  very  many  instances,  at  the  cost  of  their 
lives  ;  pleading  as  the  cause  of  their  abandonment 
of  the  profession,  that  they  were  Christians,  and 
therefore  could  not  fight.  He  says,  also,  that  his- 
tory allowed  to  the  Christians  of  that  age,  the 
character  of  holy  and  devout  men  and  women, 
practicing  every  virtue  inculcated  by  the  founder 
of  their  religion. 


LETTER  IV. 

I  shall  notice  in  this  Letter  the  ill-adaptedness  of 
the  Military  Corps  of  the  State,  by  its  conscriptive 
Jaws,  to  its  present  or  probable  future  wants,  in 
connection  with  argument,  on  the  just  claims  of 
many  other  persons  than  those  of  the  conscientious- 


21 

ly  scrupulous  from  military  conscription,  and  also 
give  some  of  my  reasons  why  a  government  having 
military  power  is  necessary. 

The  human  family,  like  the  stars  in  the  firmament 
of  heaven,  are  created  for  useful  purposes  ;  but  no 
two  appear  to  have  been  created  for  one  and 
the  same  purpose.  Some  planets  move  in  one 
sphere  with  great  rapidity,  while  others,  moving  in 
opposite  directions  and  with  less  velocity,  appear 
not  to  interfere  in  their  progress  with  each  other  ; 
unlike  man  only  in  not  being  possessed  of  will  and 
power  by  which  they  can  contravene  the  laws  of 
nature  and  of  their  creator  God. 

But  men  are  not  inanimate  machines,  without  will 
and  power,  therefore  we  move  onward  in  accord- 
ance with  nature's,  and  her  own  Creator's  laws, 
only  as  we  may  have  been  by  him  first  propelled, 
and  by  knowledge  made  more  or  less  acquainted 
with  them,  by  exerting  the  power  that  wisdom  im- 
parts, upon  our  ?c?7/s,  to  subject  them  thereto. 

It  is  from  creation  which  we  can,  thus  in  part, 
comprehend  what  we  may  well  learn,  that  man  can 
never  arrive  to  that  freedom  and  consequent  per- 
fection of  his  being,  which  will  effect  his,  and  the 
greatest  good  of  the  whole,  so  long  as  he  shall  con- 
tinue to  violate,  rather  than  move  onward  in  ac- 
cordance with  its  laws.  If  man  will  continue  to 
move  in  other  spheres  than  those  plainly  marked 
out  for  him  by  his  Creator,  through  Nature  and 
Revelation,  he  will  ever  be  liable  to  injurious  col- 
lisions and  premature  death. 

To  illustrate  more  plainly  the  subject  that  I  have 


22 

proposed  in  this  letter,  than  I  can  well  do  in  bring- 
inir  to  view  the  order  and  harmony  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  only,  I  will  endeavor  to  show  that  there 
ouorlit  to  be  the  same  order  and  fitness  of  position 
in  the  government  of  the  body  politic  of  this  Com- 
monwealth, from  its  highest,  to  its  lowest  members, 
that  is  necessary  in  the  human  body,  to  constitute 
it  a  perfect  body,  without  rent  or  schism. 

That  there  is  but  little  of  order  in  the  present 
Military  Department  of  the  Government  is  evident; 
and,  it  is  occasioned,  as  I  believe,  by  the  wrong  de- 
signation (by  the  heads  thereof)  of  many  members 
of  the  Body  Politic,  to  improper  places  therein. 

The  Body  Politic  of  the  State  is  made  up  of  many 
members,  none  of  which  can  be  taken  from  their 
proper  place  without  injury  to  the  whole.  Like  the 
human  body,  there  must  be  a  head  to  direct,  and 
an  eye  to  see,  an  ear  to  hear,  and  an  arm  for  de- 
fence and  for  a  great  variety  of  other  purposes. 
Therefore,  let  us,  in  designating  to  duties  the  mem- 
bers of  our  community,  be  careful  to  let  every  mem- 
ber of  it  move  in  such  department  of  society  as  he 
is  best  fitted  for  ;  placing  at  the  head  him  who  is 
well  qualified  to  perceive  all  the  wants  of  the  body 
and  put  in  motion  such  members  of  it  as  will  exe- 
cute in  the  most  direct  arid  best  manner  the  duties 
to  which  they  are  called. 

Those  persons  who  are  to  fill  any  situation  in  the 
body  politic,  must  be  well  fitted  to  the  place  they 
are  to  occupy,  or  they  will  cause  schism  in  the  body. 
Who,  occupying  the  head,  as  do  the  Legislature  of 
the  State,  would  be  wise  to  call  upon  a  non-resist- 


23 

v 

nnce  man  to  execute  vengeance  upon  evil  doers  ? 
And  who  could  commend  the  head  for  its  discretion 
were  it  in  want  of  a  strong  arm  for  defence,  if  it 
should  place  to  that  department  in  the  body  (as  our 
heads  have  done)  muny  members  of  the  political 
community  that  are  no  more  adapted  to  do  the  du- 
ties of  the  arm,  than  is  the  eye,  or  the  ear.  Time, 
labour  and  money,  spent  to  habituate  the  ear  to  do 
the  duties  of  the  arm,  or  any  other  than  those 
of  its  office,  would  be  worse  than  lost,  as  it  would 
more  or  less  tend  to  disqualify  it  to  serve  in  its 
more  appropriate  duties.  And  thus  it  is  in  the  at- 
tempt to  make  soldiers  of  many  members  of  the 
body  politic,  in  this  State  and  elsewhere.  Time, 
labour  and  money  are  spent,  to  organize  and  equip, 
train  and  discipline,  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  its 
citizens  that  never  will  be  any  benefit  to  the  State 
in  her  military  corps. 

The  weakest  finger  of  the  hand,  can  better  sup- 
ply the  place  and  do  the  duties  of  the  arm,  than  can 
very  many  of  those  citizens  who  are  enrolled  in  the 
Militia  of  the  State,  discharge  the  duties  of  actual 
service,  in  cases  of  emergency,  when  effective  men 
only,  and  not  forms  and  shadows,  could  be  consid- 
ered useful.  Such  disqualified  and  misplaced  per- 
sons in  the  body,  would  be  worse  than  useless,  as 
would  soon  be  manifest  from  the  consequent  rent 
that  would  ensue.  Had  they  been  left  unmolested 
to  discharge  such  duties  in  the  body  politic  as  they 
were  best  qualified  to  perform,  the  Corps  would  not 
have  been  so  unwieldly,  nor  would  its  life  and  sin- 
ewe,  (which  wealth  gives,)  have  been  by  them  di- 


24 

ininisheiL  or  the  rent  through  them  experienced  ; 
and  the  Slate  might,  through  their  labors  in  their 
accustomed  occupations,  have  been  enriched,  and 
tlms  strengthened  in  its  vitality,  the  energy  and 
pou-er  of  which,  gives  to  the  arm  its  greatest 
weight  of  action. 

From  the  foregoing  remarks,  it  may  perhaps  be 
inferred,  that  the  writer  would  leave  the  burthen 
of  military  duty  upon  a  selected  few  of  the  citizens 
of  the  State,  thus  imposing  upon  them  a  burthen 
which  neither  he,  nor  his  conscientious  friend,  nor 
others,  not  qualified  to  perform  its  duties,  would 
lighten  with  one  of  their  fingers. 

Here  I  shall  answer,  not  for  myself  in  every  point 
of  view,  but  as  I  suppose  some  conscientious  per- 
sons might  well  reply  ;  interspersing  some  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  my  views,  and  endeavor  to  give 
some  reasons  why  I  consider  Governments  and  Mil- 
itary power  justifiable  under  the  Christian  dispen- 
sation. 

Those,  then,  who  may  believe  that  no  civil  gov- 
ernment is  necessary,  other  than  church  govern- 
ment, or  some  other  like  government,  not  having 
authority  to  enforce  their  decisions  by  the  sword, 
might  reply,  that  they  do  not  believe,  that,  from 
the  time  that  our  Lord  first  began  to  promulgate 
his  Gospel,  it  has  ever  been  necessary  or  righteous 
for  any  person  professing  the  religion  that  he  taught 
to  coerce  with  carnal  weapons  any  person  or  per- 
sons, whether  belonging  to  their  community  or  to 
others,  to  respect  their  rights  of  property  or  of  per- 
son ;  therefore,  they  cannot  voluntarily  contribute 


25 

their  mite,  much  less  their  personal  aid  to  any  mil- 
itary establishment.  But  if  others  do  believe  co- 
ercing- military  power  to  be  more  or  less  necessary, 
on  them,  and  on  them  only,  ought  the  burthen  to 
rest  ;  for,  if  we  were  voluntarily  to  contribute  to  the 
support  of  what  we  believe  ought  not  to  be  support- 
ed by  Christians  under  any  circumstances,  we  should 
give  the  lie  to  our  belief  and  profession,  and  there- 
by not  only  injure  our  usefulness,  but  bring  upon 
ourselves  that,  which  for  the  love  of  life,  we  could 
not  endure,  the  condemnation  of  God,  and  a  separ- 
ation from  the  saints  in  Heaven.  Against  persons 
using  such  arguments,  believing  them  honest,  I  could 
not  reply  that  they  were  unwilling  to  bear  their 
part  of  the  burthen  necessary  to  the  public  good, 
as  it  would  unjustly  accuse  them  of  sordid  motives, 
of  which  they  manifest  no  signs. 

In  such  a  defence  I  cannot  but  see  that  those  who 
make  it,  are,  being  honest,  as  totally  disqualified  to 
voluntarily  take  any  such  burthens  upon  them,  as 
they  would  be  to  commit  any  other  criminal  act. 
And  for  myself  I  here  say  that  much  of  the  forego- 
ing argument  is  in  defence  of  my  own  views  on  the 
rights  of  conscience  ;  riot  because  I  believe  no  mil- 
itary can  righteously  be  supported,  (they  not  hav- 
ing considered  that  but  few  of  the  heads  of  govern- 
ments are  Christian)  but  for  many  reasons,  other 
than  physical  inability,  I  do  not  believe  it  my  duty 
to  become  a  member  of  the  Corps.  The  first  that 
I  shall  here  make  is,  that  as  a  believer  in  every  pre- 
cept of  the  Gospel  that  I  can  understand,  I  should 
feel  myself  greatly  condemned  to  resort  to  arms  to 
3 


26 

defend  myself,  or  others,  unless  a  high  sense  of 
duty  should  make  it  clearly  right. 

I  believe  that  almost  all  public  wars,  or  civil  wars 
of  any  kind,  have  their  origin  in  the  lust  and  wick- 
edness of  both  the  parties.  Like  individuals,  each 
one  sees,  or  thinks  he  sees  the  errors  of  the  other, 
but  is  blind  to  his  own.  It  may  not  be  so  always — 
it  is  not  so  at  all  times  in  individuals  who  differ. 

I  shall  here  offer  one  or  two  more  reasons  that 
hold  me,  as  an  honest  man,  founding  my  faith  on 
what  I  consider  important  revelations  in  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Gospel,  from  resorting  to  the  sword 
in  unison  with  a  military  corps  to  avenge  supposed 
wrongs.  I  believe  that  God  has  ordained  the  sword 
to  be  used  against  evil  doers  only  ;  and  against  such 
I  believe  it  is  mostly  used  ;  but  I  also  believe  that 
the  evil  doers  are  usually  of  both  the  contending 
parties,  and  covetous  of  other's  rights  ;  that  there 
is  a  holding  back  in  both  parties,  through  covetous- 
ness,  that  which  if  yielded  would  tend  to  produce 
the  greatest  good  of  both.  Were  the  heads  of  the 
parties  often  to  drink  deep  (while  controverting  the 
matter  in  dispute)  from  the  inexhaustible  fountain 
of  Gospel  truth,  and  purge  themselves  from  all  cov- 
etous and  ambitious  desires,  there  would  soon  be 
no  just  cause  of  war  in  the  minds  of  either  party. 
But  it  is  not  so — and  the  remark  that  has  frequent- 
ly been  made,  that  an  honest  man  is  not  to  be  en- 
trusted with  the  conducting  of  State  affairs,  is  too 
much  held  as  a  sound  maxim.  That  one  or  the 
other  of  the  contending  parties  is  wrong,  through 
covetousness,  "which  the  Lord  hateth  and  the  right- 


27 

eous  hateth,"  will  be  admitted  ;  and  however  incon- 
siderable the  subject  of  dispute  may  be,  the  sword 
is  resorted  to,  and  when  all  the  judgments  designat- 
ed for  the  contending  parties  shall  have  been  ac- 
complished by  him  whose  laws  whether  of  nature, 
or  of  revelation,  can  never  with  impunity  be  violat- 
ed, the  maimed  and  exhausted,  who  supported  and 
bore  the  burthen,  and  lived  through  the  trial,  have 
usually  but  little  more  to  console  themselves  with 
than  their  manifested  bravery  and  skill,  in  thus 
ignorantly  executing  judgments  upon  each  other's 
devoted  heads.  "He  that  taketh  the  sword,  shall 
perish  by  the  sword,"  was  uttered  by  him  who  also 
said  "He  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear." 

I  shall  now  continue  the  examination  of  the  com- 
patability  of  a  military  power,  under  the  Christian 
dispensation.  I  believe  that  at  the  time  Jesus  said 
"  it  is  finished,  and  he  bowed  his  head  and  gave  up 
the  Ghost,"  neither  he  through  the  power  of  God 
nor  God  through  him  in  his  life,  death  and  resurec- 
tion,  had  done  comparatively  little  more  than  com- 
plete, (not  only  through  the  agency  of  his  wonder- 
fully adapted  person  but  especially  through  the  per- 
fection of  the  Wisdom,  Love  and  Truth,  and  every 
other  virtue  which  he  possessed  without  measure,) 
a  new  code  of  Laws,  or  ways  and  means  that  were 
and  ever  will  be,  through  the  agency  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  most  perfectly  adapted  to  the  nature  and 
various  conditions  of  man  to  effect  his  greatest  good 
in  redeeming  him  from  ignorance  and  sin,  misery 
and  death,  to  the  light  of  truth,  and  freedom  from 
sin  and  misery  to  life  and  immortality. 


28 

This  plainly  delinenated  chart  of  the  narrow 
though  straight  road  from  earth  to  heaven,- or  code 
of  laws,  that  "  he  who  runs  may  read,"  had  been 
exhibited  in  full  to  but  few  of  the  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  men  at  the  time  of  its  completion.  Although 
a  less  perfect  form  of  it  was  beheld  by  Abraham, 
and  many  other  saints  of  old,  to  their  great  joy  in 
future  hope,  its  full  glories  to  see  :  and  as  this  chart, 
by  its  Great  Author,  has  been  withheld  or  made  to 
appear  dressed  in  almost  numberless  unmeaning 
and  obscuring  costumes,  and,  as  there  has  been  as 
yet  but  few  of  the  world  of  men  (as  there  were  but 
few  when  Jesus  said  "  it  is  finished")  who  have 
been  brought  by  its  redeeming  power  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  its  laws  ;  therefore,  I  have  not  the  shad- 
ow of  a  doubt  that  so  long  as  there  are  in  society 
unredeemed  men  who  can,  in  defiance  of  some  mor- 
al principle  showing  them  their  error,  commit  harm, 
plunder  or  violence,  either  through  art  or  deception, 
in  secret  or  openly,  or  by  any  means  whatever,  up- 
on the  rights  of  others,  whether  of  property  or  per- 
son, God  will  not  only  make  manifest  his  justice 
but  also  as  far  as  he  can  (by  reason  of  the  imper- 
fection of  man)  his  judgments  also  to  their  condem- 
nation and  accountability  to  those  of  the  commu- 
nity they  may  have  harmed. 

If  God  did  not  provide  some  means  or  way  to  con- 
vince or  show  such  transgressors  that  they  must 
and  would  eventually  be  greater  sufferers  than  gain- 
ers by  the  practice  of  error,  they  would  ever  con- 
tinue to  reject  the  principles  of  the  Gospel,  if  it 
were  proclaimed  to  them  by  the  Son  of  God  himself, 


29 

and  they  would  become  in  time,  if  not  cut  off  by 
judgments,  more  or  less  like  brutes  of  many  grades 
and  kinds,  the  worshipers  at  the  shrine^pf  power, 
the  stronger  making  prey  of  the  weaker,  from  him 
who  might  be  the  most  powerful  down  to  him  who 
might  be  the  last  that  they  could  plunder  or  devour. 
As  it  was  ordained  by  God  from  the  day  of  the 
first  transgression,  that  there  should  be  enmity  be- 
tween the  seed  of  the  deceiver  and  the  seed  of  the 
woman,  and  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  should 
bruise  the  deceiver's  head,  and  as  he  has  ordained 
governments  to  execute  vengeance  upon  evil  doers 
and  not  upon  those  who  are  made  free  from  sin  or 
transgression,  and  as  Christ  made  no  provision 
in  his  new  covenant  for  pulling  down  or  for  remov- 
ing any  of  the  governments  of  the  earth  that  exist- 
ed or  that  ever  might  exist  when  he  said  "it  is  fin- 
ished," but  did.  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  pay  tribute 
for  the  support  of  holy  things,  and  rendered  to  the 
rulers  of  the  earth  their  dues,  I  cannot  show  any 
cause  for  questioning  the  sanctity  of  Governments 
taken  as  a  whole  ;  not  only  for  the  suppression  of 
evil  doers  that  may  rise  up  against  their  authority, 
but  also  to  act  as  God's  vicegerents,  to  execute  his 
vengeance  upon  the  wicked  of  the  earth  in  heavy 
judgments  poured  out  upon  one  another  ;  in  which 
judgments  God  can  by  and  through  their  wrath  es- 
tablish praise  to  himself,  and  the  redemption  of  the 
oppressed  and  bowed  down  throughout  the  earth. 
Here  I  will  add,  that  if  it  is  God's  will,  and  I  believe 
it  is,  to  use  a  military  power  to  execute  judgment 

on  earth,  let  it  be  like  the  sword  that  they  use,  so 
3* 


30 

organized  and  supported  as  will  render  it  most  effi- 
cient in  the  work  of  destruction. 


LETTER  V. 

In  this  letter,  Sir,  I  intend  to  re-examine  some 
points  of  my  former  arguments,  for  the  purpose  of 
adding  weight  to  some  important  ones  that  I  have 
but  too  lightly  noticed  ;  and  then  proceed  to  show, 
what  I  believe  to  be  the  only  justifiable  ground, 
guarding  the  rights  and  the  greatest  good,  of  all  the 
parties  concerned,  upon  which  to  call  into  being  and 
to  maintain  a  Military  Corps  in  the  State,  viz  :  Vol- 
untary Enlistments. 

Having  admitted,  and  endeavored  to  make  it  evi- 
dent that  Governments  have  not  only  the  right,  but 
that  it  is  their  duty  to  enact  laws  in  consonance  with 
the  laws  of  nature  and  of  God,  tending  to  produce 
the  greatest  good  of  the  whole  ;  and  also  like  nature, 
to  suffer  no  person  to  violate  them  with  impunity, 
pardoning  the  innocently  ignorant,  but  punishing 
those  who  knowingly  and  willingly  violate  the  rights 
of  any  person  or  community  ;  having  also  admitted 
that  through  covetousness  and  various  other  causes, 
men  frequently  combine  in  greater  or  less  numbers, 
and  with  carnal  weapons  plunder  or  commit  violence 
upon  the  property  or  person  of  others  ;  and  as  no 
one  person  can,  without  or  with  the  sword,  exert  a 
power  sufficient  to  arrest  and  confine  for  judgment, 
any  powerful  combination  of  lawless  depredators, 
therefore  the  Body  Politic  is  in  duty  bound  to  arm 


31 

and  equip,  and  well  maintain,  at  the  general  charge 
of  the  whole  body,  a  sufficient  number  of  most  per- 
fectly armed  and  epuiped  persons  who  are  by  na- 
ture and  God,  well  qualified  in  their  every  capacity 
to  act  as  an  arm  of  defence  in  ready  obedience  to 
the  commands  of  the  head,  to  arrest,  if  having  pow- 
er sufficient,  said  lawless  person  or  persons,  that 
they  may  have  opportunity  to  plead  and  exonerate 
themselves  from  the  charge  of  evil  intent.  But  if 
said  person  or  persons  offer  resistance  with  deadly 
weapons,  the  State  is  in  duty  bound,  through  the 
agency  of  her  well  appointed  power,  to  exert  so 
much  thereof  as  will  most  effectually  suppress,  by 
greater  or  less  judgment,  said  lawless  depredators. 

The  head  and  arms,  and  all  the  other  members 
of  the  body,  necessarily  called  to  learn  and  serve 
in  any  of  the  aforesaid  duties,  to  receive  such  com- 
pensation for  their  time  and  services,  as  will  induce 
a  sufficient  number  of  the  best  qualified  persons  to 
engage  therein  ;  leaving  all  those  out  of  the  military 
corps  who  are  any  way  disqualified  to  discharge  its 
duties. 

There  is  one  very  important  point  in  this  plea, 
that  I  have  not  directly  brought  to  view  in  my  for- 
mer letters,  the  partial  inability  of  many  persons 
from  physical  and  moral  causes,  that  more  or  less 
disqualify  them  for  the  duties  of  the  soldier. 

The  writer  of  these  letters,  never  in  but  one  in- 
stance obeyed  the  injunction  of  the  law,  and  then 
he  was  not  of  age,  to  equip,  arm  and  answer  to  his 
name,  as  an  enrolled  soldier,  although  for  many 
years  he  was  liable,  and  hard  pressed  to  do  said  du- 


32 

ties,  the  law  having-  made  no  provision  for  his  re- 
lease, and  therefore  he  well  knows  how  much  some 
persons  may  suffer  that  are  pressed  to  appear  in 
arms,  who  have  not  fully  made  up  their  minds,  that 
no  considerations  or  consequences  can  induce  to  do 
so.  Restless  were  his  days,  and  disturbed  was  his 
sleep  at  night,  before  he  fully  resigned  himself  to 
disregard  such  calls,  and  abide  the  issue. 

If  the  heads  of  the  State  are  desirous  to  root  out 
honesty  in  its  members,  let  them  continue  to  impose 
fines  and  execute  them  by  imprisonment,  upon  those 
who  have  it,  and  then  the  youth  arid  others  who 
have  but  a  small  share  of  it,  and  that  much  buried 
in  the  rubbish  of  cares,  will  become  to  them  an  easy 
prey.  It  is  from  the' shoulders  of  such  persons  and 
the  young  and  tender  who  are  not  so  fully  grown  in 
their  conscientious  scruples  of  military  duties  as  to 
be  unmoved  by  the  power  of  oppression,  and  also 
from  the  shoulders  of  all  other  persons  more  or  less 
disqualified  from  any  and  every  cause,  of  every 
name  and  nature,  that  this  burthen  should  be  re- 
moved. It  is  in  behalf  of  the  rights,  the  inalienable 
rights  of  those  of  my  fellow  citizens,  and  also  for 
the  purpose  of  having  a  military  corps  of  perons  in 
this  Commonwealth  so  organized  and  so  allied  to 
the  government  of  the  Bddy  Politic,  holding  them- 
selves ever  ready  to  accomplish  whatever  duties 
the  Head  may  direct,  that  I  wish  some  change  to 
be  made.  It  is  in  the  hope  of  rendering  some  aid 
in  effecting  the  more  speedy  accomplishment  of  the 
foregoing  objects,  that  I  have  taken  my  pen  to  com- 
mit to  you,  Sir,  and  through  the  press  to  the  public 
these  Letters. 


33 

There  is  one  more  point,  although  I  am  limited 
for  time  and  means,  that  I  cannot  honestly  pass 
without  noticing.  It  refers  to  the  onerous  consid- 
erations or  equivalents  as  they  are  termed  by  some 
to  be  demanded  of  those  persons  who  cannot  con- 
scientiously do  military  duty,  and  also  of  others  re- 
fusing to  do  it  from  any  cause,  not  recognized  by 
law  :  to  be  paid  in  money,  into  the  appointed  hand 
of  him  who  is  to  sec  that  it  is  appropriated  to  be- 
nevolent purposes.  Here  I  ask,  will  the  end  justi- 
fy the  means  ?  We  not  having  withheld  any  thing 
from  the  stale  that  she  has  a  right  to,  yet  she  de- 
mands our  personal  services  in  her  military  corps. 
We  reply,  according  to  circumstances,  the  consci- 
entious part  :  That  God  has  not  designed  us  for  the 
corps,  and  that  he  is  greater  than  the  State,  there- 
fore we  worship  him.  The  State  replies,  your  per- 
sonal services,  or  your  money  as  an  equivalent — it 
shall  be  put  to  the  best  of  uses.  We  reply  that  the 
end  will  not  justify  the  means — you  must  first  have 
good  claim  on  our  persons  to  demand  our  property 
as  an  equivalent.  To  make  her  claim  good,  the 
State  must  first  show  that  she  has  the  right  to  com- 
pel any  of  her  citizens  to  do  military  duty  in  disre- 
gard of  their  conscientious  scruples  ;  for  if  she  has 
no  rightful  claim  on  their  persons,  she  cannot  have 
a  righteous  one  on  their  property,  as  an  equivalent. 

Here  I  submit  a  question — Are  those  who  are 
scrupulous  of  bearing  arms,  guilty  of  an  injurious 
act  against  the  welfare  of  the  whole  ?  Before  an 
affirmative  answer  can  here  be  given,  the  New  Tes- 
tament and  its  author,  with  every  remembrance  of 
its  doctrines,  must  be  struck  into  oblivion. 


Those  members  of  the  community  who  deny  the 
of  the  State  to  their  involuntary  services  in 
any  of  its  departments,  without  compensation,  in 
which  denial  they  can  support  themselves,  may  an- 
swer in  their  defence  against  having1  their  money 
transferred  from  their  pockets  to  charitable  uses  as 
an  equivalent  for  their  personal  service  in  the  mil- 
corps,  that  they  deny  the  right  of  the  State  to 
compel  them  to  do  any  service  for  her  without  pay- 
ment. Therefore,  -the  State  having  no  right  to 
conscript  them  into  the  military  corps,  she  can  have 
no  right  to  demand  their  money,  as  equivalent,  on 
their  neglect  of  personal  duty,  for  if  their  money  is 
taken  from  them  without  their  consent,  and  appro- 
priated to  nroocl  purposes,  they  are  not  the  less 
wronged.  I>uccaniers  may  do  thus,  but  those  whom 
they  plunder  are  not  the  less  injured. 

This  device  might  be  pleaded  in  sanction  of  every 
species  of  plunder,  and  those  who  resort  to  it  as  a 
device  to  get  at  the  property  of  others,  as  an  equiva- 
lent for  personal  services  of  which  they  have  no 
right,  if  weighed  in  the  balance,  will  be  found  want- 
ing. If  the  demand  of  the  government  is  well  bot- 
tomed, why  put  the  monies  to  charitable  uses  rath- 
er than  into  the  common  funds  ?  The  answer  must 
be  that,  they  would  not  be  so  readily  yielded. 

This  plea,  for  thus  imposing  fines  on  military  de- 
linquents, is  made  in  want  of  substantial  ground  to 
bottom  them  upon,  and  is  at  best  a  device,  which 
can  deceive  the  ignorant  and  awe  the  timid  only. 
And  as  in  all  conscientious  matters,  so  in  this,  the 
weight  of  the  burthen  will  fall  most  heavily  on  those 


35 

who  are  weak  in  the  faith  of  their  profession.  Every 
man  first  commences  a  child  in  moral  principle,  and 
if  he  shall  bear  up  under  all  that  oppresses  him  in 
tender  youth,  he  will  soon  be  uncontrolled  by  the 
oppressions  of  men.  Every  virtuous  man  should 
cultivate,  rather  than  repress,  any  moral  sense  that 
manifests  itself  in  young1  or  old.  He  who  should 
offend  the  young,  that  believed  in  him,  Jesus  de- 
clared, had  better  be  by  a  millstone's  weight  in  the 
depths  of  the  sea. 

The  Conscriptive  Military  Laws  of  the  State  are 
not  only  injurious  to  all  whom  they  oppressively 
effect,  but,  also,  like  all  of  Nature's  Laws,  far  more 
injurious  to  those  who  covet  to  themselves  some  ex- 
clusive easements,  or  indulgencies,~or  peculiar  ad- 
vantages over  men  of  equal  merit  ;  by  which  covet- 
ous appropriations,  others'  justifiable  claims  are 
more  or  less  perverted  from  their  designed  uses. 
Those  who  pervert  the  bounties  of  nature  from  their 
most  beneficial  uses,  cannot  escape  receiving  them- 
selves the  greater  of  the  evils  attending  every  such 
violation  of  the  right  ;  and  such  perverters,  will 
ever  grow,  if  willful,  blinder  and  blinder  to  their 
fate  the  nearer  they  approach  it.  until  judgment 
commences  her  retributive  work.  From  this  truth 
let  no  transgressor  think  to  escape. 

What  does  this  State  expend  yearly  for  the  sup- 
port of  her  Military,  as  now  organized?  Throwing  all 
the  items  of  every  individual  offering  called  for  by 
its  laws,  demanding  the  personal  service  of  its  citi- 
zens and  their  necessary  expenditures,  &c.  into  the 
scale,  the  sum  footed  would  astound  any  one  man 


36 

in  this  community  who  might  be  held  liable  to  its 
payment.  But  it  would  be  no  more  than  the  bona- 
fide  sum  that  it  now,  under  its  conscriptive  laws, 
disburses  through  the  contributions  of  the  less  able 
of  its  citizens.  And  what  has  the  State  to  show  to 
balance  this  account — has  she  Military  power  or 
only  the  shadow  of  it  ?  So  far  as  effective  power 
might  be  wanting,  organized  as  it  is,  no  insurrec- 
tion arising  from  the  usual  or  any  probable  causes 
would  be  likely  to  be  put  down  by  reason  of  the 
herterogeneous  compounds  of  its  nature  ;  the  "hay 
wood  and  stubble"  of  its  composition  would  kindle 
more  flame  than  the  most  virtuous  of  their  citizens 
could  extinguish.  Neither  would  their  discordant 
compounds  be  of  much  worth  if  called  to  repel  an 
invasion;  their  unweildly  composition  would  require 
as  much,  perhaps  more,  valuable  power  of  some 
other  kind  to  move  them  onward,  than  theirs  would 
be  worth  in  its  application. 

The  military  power  of  the  State  ought  to  be  as 
concentrated  as  circumstances  will  admit,  otherwise 
it  may  not  be  a  power  in  fact  but  in  name  only.  I  do 
not  mean  by  the  concentration  of  power  as  here 
used,  that  whatever  of  power  there  may  be  in  the 
Militia  of  the  State  should  be  all  brought  to  rest  at 
any  one  point  in  the  State,  or  elsewhere.  The 
power  that  does  in  fact  eiist  in  every  division  or 
subdivison  of  it,  ought  to  be  freed  from  everything 
of  every  name  and  nature,  so  far  as  circumstances 
admit,  that  tends  in  any  of  its  locations,  in  anyway 
to  lessen  its  weight  or  usefulness.  As  it  is  now 
composed,  its  real  power  reminds  me  of  valuable 


37 

weights,  encompassed  and  so  mixed  up  with  a  va- 
riety of  compounds  that  nothing  short  of  some  ren- 
ovating process,  or  breaking  up  of  the  heterogen- 
eous masses,  can  so  bring  them  back  to  their  prop- 
er elements  that  their  true  weight  or  poicer  of  the 
State  will  be  so  concentrated  in  every  town  that 
the  lawless  may  be  made  to  fear  a  power  in  /acf, 
which  they  would  disregard  in/onnonly. 

That  there  are  some  persons  in  every  communi- 
ty much  better  fitted  to  compel,  by  physical  coer- 
cion, the  lawless  and  disobedient  to  cease  from  their 
violence,  than  are  others,  none  can  doubt.*  A  few 
off/wse,  well  organized  and  perfectly  equipped  would, 
if  well  rewarded  for  devotion  to  their  duties,  awe 
turbulent  rioters,  neither  in  soft  clothing  or  menial 
rags,  that  presume  to  disregard  the  natural  and  con- 


*Here  the  question  may  he  asked,  why  this  difference  ? 
Being  limited,  I  can  here  only  say,  that  in  moral,  or,  as  some 
would  please  to  term  them,  in  religious  attainments,  we  com- 
mence as  children  ;  therefore  a  difference  by  reason  of  growth 
-—and  also  like  them  in  the  attainment  of  the  physical  sci- 
ences, some  are  far  better  qualified  by  nature  and  God,  to 
receive  many  of.the  important  truths  contained  therein,  than 
are  others  ;  who,  likewise,  having  differently  constituted 
minds,  will  he  better  qualified  to  attain  a  knowledge  of  other 
equally  important  truths,  and  perhaps  far  better  adapted  in 
their  physical  capacity  to  the  execution  than  to  the  designing 
of  any  work — such  will  make  good  soldiers,  under  the  com- 
mand of  righteous,  intelligent  officers.  In  these  particulars 
God  has  made  us  to  differ — "we  having  nothing  that  we  have 
not  received."  But  holding,  as  I  do,  that  man  is  a  free  agent, 
having  power  to  do,  and  also  not  to  do,  many  things  that  he 
does  do,  which  fact  can  never  be  disproved,  I  admit  that  our 
differing  is  frequently  a  fault,  for  which  we  justly  receive 
condemnation. 

4 


38 

etitutional  rights  of  the  weaker  part  of  communities. 
But  they  must  be  attached  to  the  government  and 
its  righteous  laws,  and  to  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
the  community.  And  what  will  tend  thus  to  attach 
them  ?  To  the  government  they  will  feel  bound 
by  the  righteousness  of  its  decisions  and  by  its  lib- 
erality to  them*  And  what  will  induce  them  to  re- 
gard the  rights  of  the  community  ?  The  liberality 
extended  toward  them,  through  the  support  the 
community  give  the  government  for  this  very 
thing.  And  not  until  the  community  shall  contrib- 
ute to  the  support  of  their  government,  which  shall 
pledge  itself  to  the  support  of  the  Military  power, 
will  they,  or  the  State,  be  made  sensible  how  few  of 
its  members  will  be  necessary  to  devote  a  portion 
of  their  time  to  fiting  and  preparing  themselves  as 
the  protectors  of  the  rights  of  those  who  shall  have 
willingly  guaranteed  to  them  a  reciprocity  of  favors. 
Any  customs,  forms,  or  practices,  of  any  name 
or  nature,  however  sacred  they  may  have  been 
held,  or  however  useful  the  observance  of  them 
may  have  been,  cease  to  be  binding  upon  any  peo- 
ple, so  soon  as  the  greatest  good  of  those  who  prac- 
tice or  observe  them,  and  of  the  whole  through 
them,  can  no  longer  be  accomplished  by  their  con- 
tinued observance ;  of  whiph  each  individual  is  alone 
his  judge,  or  rather  God,  whom  he  worships,  judges 
for  him,  (which  judgment,  if  he  submit  to,  well — if 
not,  it  will  rest  on  him  to  his  condemnation  ;  it  is 
thus  that  God  is  the  judge  of  the  righteous,  as  he 
is  also  of  the  wicked,)  and  he  may  also  be  judged 
or  directed,  on  being  called  out  of  said  forms,  to 


39 

testify  against  their  use,  believing-,  by  reason  of  the 
immoral,  covetous  and  hypocritical  practices,  in 
many  things,  that  those,  or  many  of  those,  who 
continue  to  observe  them,  worship  not  the  living 
God,  \vho  in  days  of  old  ordained  the  establishment 
of  them  for  good  purposes,  but  the  forms  only,  and 
them  much  for  the  purpose  of  being  regarded  by 
others  as  religious  men  ;  from  such  men,  the  inno- 
cently conscientious,  ever  regarding  justice  and 
truth,  will,  as  have  our  fathers,  receive  persecution  ; 
fulfilling  from  age  to  age,  in  our  bodies  thus  devot- 
ed for  the  good  and  the  redemption  of  the  world, 
"tlrnt  which  remains"  to  be  fulfilled  "  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ ;"  it  being  the  spirit  of  Christ  ruling 
in  our  hearts  and  consciences  that  calls  forth  the 
madness  and  the  violence  of  man  upon  us,  as  it  was 
the  spirit  of  God  in  Christ,  whom  they  knew  not, 
that  caused  the  Jews  to  hate  him.  Until  persecu- 
tion ceases,  God  through  Christ  will  not  have  com- 
pleted man's  redemption,  although  he  in  the  figure 
of  his  body  wrought  out  and  manifested  every  pro- 
cess necessary  for  us  to  begin,  and  through  the  self 
same  Christ  or  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  carry  on  and  ac- 
complish the  workin  ourselves  and  to  the  uttermost 
ends  of  the  earth.  And  thus  it  is  with  the  custom 
of  war — it  is  ceasing  to  be  the  best  means,  (by  reason 
of  man's  progress  from  ignorance  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  and  her  God,  to  a  more  perfect  acquaintance 
with  them)  as  in  days  of  old,  and  to  many  at  this  day, 
to  judge  and  punish  the  wicked  of  the  world  ;  and 
as  from  time  to  time  it  shall  cease  to  be  necessary 
for  judgment,  Christ  will  say  to  his  devoted  disciples 


40 

"put  up  thy  sword  into  its  sheath."  Had  Peter  at 
some  subsequent  time,  not  having  the  sanction  or 
command  of  his  Lord,  but  through  fear  or  any  oth- 
er cause,  taken  the  sword,  he  must  have  perished 
by  it.  As  the  act  of  taking  would  have  been  an  as- 
sumption of  /it's,  done  in  his  own  w//Z,  it  would  have 
been  sinful,  and  called  down  upon  him  some  just 
retribution,  or  the  judgment  of  the  sword  of  justice. 
It  is  my  firm  belief  that  the  good  people  of  this 
Commonwealth  would  be  highly  benefitted  if  there 
were  no  more  than  one  Military  Company  of  fifty 
persons,  rank  and  file,  more  or  less,  as  considered 
best,  to  one  legal  Representative,  throughout  the 
State,  constituting  a  corps  of  about  twenty-five 
thousand  men,  to  be  perfectly  equipped,  and  as 
fully  compensated  from  the  public  chest  for  all  the 
time  they  are  called  upon  to  devote  to  the  duties  of 
their  callings  as  are  the  Representatives  who  spend 
so  much  time  to  accomplish  that  which  can  never 
be  accomplished — the  remodeling  of  Injustice,  Op- 
pression, Disorder  and  Weakness,  into  Justice, 
Freedom,  Order  and  Power. 


LETTER  VI. 

Having,  Sir,  unexpected  opportunity  and  means, 
I  shall,  in  this  short  Letter,  give  you  some  of  my 
views  on  the  measures  to  be  adopted  to  carry  into 
effect,  not  only  the  most  ample  release  of  all  per- 
sons who  may  believe  it  morally  wrong  for  them  to 
do  military  duty,  but  of  all  others,  in  every  condi- 


41 

tion  of  life,  to  whom  the  service  is  a  burthen  ;  and 
also  my  views  of  the  most  justifiable,  liberal  and 
orderly  measures  to  be  taken  to  organize  and  well 
sustain  an  efficient  Military  Power  in  this  Common- 
wealth. 

That  it  will  be  the  duty  of  the  Government  to 
maintain  its  present  form,  or  shadow,  of  military 
power,  until  it  can  avail  itself  of  the  substance,  is 
true.  Forms  and  shadows  have  some  controlling 
influence  on  the  ignorant  and  fearful  part  of  every 
community,  who,  so  long-  as  they  can  be  made  to 
believe  that  in  them  there  is  substance  and  power, 
are  as  well  controlled  and  feasted  for  the  time,  as 
are  the  more  wise  and  thinking,  with  realities. 

The  Government,  believing  that  her  old  military 
structure  is  rotten,  and  liable  to  fall  on  the  heads 
of  those  whom  it  was  intended  to  protect,  if  wise, 
will  not  only  forsake  it,  but,  in  constructing  another 
for  like  purposes,  choose  such  materials  as  will  be 
most  certain  to  answer  the  purpose  intended,  count- 
ing the  comparative  bonafide  cost  of  them  to  the 
whole  community,  who  will  have  to  foot  the  bills, 
as  well  as  receive  the  benefits. 

If  the  State  believes,  then,  that  she  is  in  want  of 
fifty  workmen,  more  or  less,  to  labor  as  a  military 
corps  in  her  defence,  and  that  as  many  of  such  corps 
ought  to  be  located  in  every  town  and  city  of  the 
Commonwealth  as  said  town  or  city  may  be  legally 
entitled  to  send  Representatives  to  the  Legislature, 
not  regarding  their  fractional  privilege,  and  if  she 
will  engage  to  pay  to  every  member  of  said  corps 
as  great  a  sum  per  day,  and  every  fractional  part 
4* 


42 

of  a  day,  for  their  services,  as  she  pays  to  said  Rep- 
resentatives, she  must  authorise  the  civil  officers  of 
her  towns  and  cities,  from  date,  to  enrol  the  names 
of  such  sane  and  well  qualified  persons,  not  exceed- 
ing fifty,  more  or  less,  as  may  offer  themselves  for 
the  military  service  of  the  State,  for  one  or  more 
years,  (but  no  one  to  be  bound  to  said  service  for 
a  longer  time  than  he  may  choose,  as  his  services 
will  be  less  useful,  and  others  may  be  kept  back,) 
as  a  member  of  the  first,  second  or  third  military 
company,  as  the  case  may  be,  of  the  city  or  town 

of ,  under  the  new  organization,   and  so  soon 

as  twenty  such  persons,  more  or  less,  shall  have 
thus  enrolled  themselves,  said  civil  officers  shall 
call  a  meeting  of  said  persons  to  sign  their  certifi- 
cate of  voluntary  enrollment,  in  form  somewhat  like 
the  following  : 

We,  whose  names  are  by  us  here  subscribed,  be- 
ing of  sober  and  sound  mind,  and  free  from  any  in- 
cumbrances  that  essentially  disqualify  us  from  a 
faithful  discharge  of  the  duties  of  a  citizen  or  mili- 
tary soldiers  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachu- 
setts, do,  on  subscribing  our  names  to  this  certifi- 
cate, voluntarily  enroll  ourselves  members  of  the 

First  Military  Company  of under  the  new 

organization,  hereby  severally  subjecting  ourselves 
to  do  the  duties  required  by  the  laws  of  the  State, 
&c.,  until  we  shall  have  made  known,  or  any  one 
of  us,  to  the  Commander  of  said  Company  his  inten- 
tion of  withdrawing  his  services  therefrom,  or  shall 
have  been  dismissed  by  the  major  vote  of  said  com- 
pany for  inability  or  delinquency,  as  the  case  may 


be,  &c.  The  signing  of  which  shall  absolve  said 
persons  from  any  former  military  obligations  to  the 
Commonwealth  ;  and  under  the  direction  and  pres- 
idency of  said  civil  officer  they  shall  be  immediately 
legally  authorised  to  proceed  to  the  choice  of  such 
officers  as  may  be  by  law  deemed  necessary  for 
their  government  ;  said  proceedings  to  be  returned 
by  the  civil  officers  to  the  constituted  authority  for 
his  approval  and  legal  commission  ;  and  the  com- 
mander of  each  company  shall,  through  the  com- 
pany's clerk,  keep  open  the  roll  of  certificate  enlist- 
ment to  receive  names  whenever  there  shall  be  a 
less  number  than  the  law  may  require  to  constitute 
a  full  company. 

So  soon  as  the  civil  officers  of  any  of  the  cities  or 
towns  of  this  Commonwealth  shall  certify  to  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  and  he  shall  have  authorised 
them  to,  they  shall  publicly  announce  to  their  citi- 
zens that  there  have  been  so  many  military  com- 
panies organized,  under  the  new  organizing  laws 
of  the  State,  as  are  bylaw  required,  and  that  all  and 
every  person  within  its  limits,  excepting  field  offi- 
cers and  the  aforesaid  volunteers,  released  from 
any  further  involuntary  military  service. 

It  is  true  some  laws  rather  novel  in  their  nature 
will  be  necessary  to  carry  through  this  very  liberal 
plan  of  Voluntary  Service  and  compensated  labor. 
I  will  notice  but  such  as  I  think  essential.  The 
company  first  organized  in  any  town  or  city  to  be 
called  No.  1  of  said  town  or  city,  and  the  next  thus 
organized  to  be  called  No.  2,  and  so  on  to  the  com- 
pletion of  the  requirements  of  the  law.  Said  com- 


44 


*  to  rank  by  the  seniority  of  any  anterior 
commission  under  the  seal  of  the  State,  &c.,  which 
its  commander  elect  may  be  able  to  produce  ;  also 
ro  title  themselves  as  they  may  please.  Organized 
companies  to  vote  in,  and,  for  inability  or  misde- 
meanor, to  vote  their  members  out. 

No  member  of  any  company  to  draw  pay  for  his 
services  unless  he  shall  answer  to  his  name,  duly 
equipped,  &c.  on  the  call  of  the  roll  ;  and  be  subject 
to  no  greater  fine,  in  addition  to  his  loss  of  remu- 
neration, than  what  may  be  voted  to  be  assessed 
upon  him  for  non-appearance  only,  by  his  fellow 
companions,  which  sum  shall  never  exceed  in 
amount  his  legal  compensation  for  one  day's  service, 
and  said  fine  may  be  held  to  defray  the  contingent 
expenses  of  the  Company. 

Delinquency  in  non-appearance,  and  for  any  other 
causes,  to  be  decided  and  recorded  within  six  days 
by  the  officers  and  clerk  of  the  company. 

The  record  of  the  companies  to  be  subject  to  the 
inspection  of  any  of  its  members,  or  any  civil  officer 
of  the  town  or  city,  £e. 

The  company  last  formed  in  any  city  or  town  to 
disband  itself  on  their  being  a  diminution  of  its  rep- 
resentatives —  and  perhaps  other  laws,  the  writer 
not  being  at  all  acquainted  with  military  forms  or 
law. 

I  will  here  add,  that  I  could  conscientiously  pre- 
side at  the  organization  of  a  military  company  as 
proposed,  as  readily  as  I  could  give  my  vote  for  a 
commander-in-chief  of  the  State's  civil  and  military 
departments,  as  are  our  governors,  or  give  my  vote 


45 

for  any  officer  whom  I  had  reason  to  believe  would 
support  a  military  power  ;  provided  that  the  gov- 
ernment should  not  think  it  necessary  to  raise  more 
of  such  companies  than  I  believed  the  public  good 
required.  And  I  will  here  improve  this  opportuni- 
ty to  say,  that  I  do  not  believe  there  are  any  cir- 
cumstances, at  home  or  abroad,  that  would  justify 
the  State  in  requiring  her  citizens  to  maintain  more 
than  one  full  company  to  two  town- or  city  repre- 
sentatives ;  but  of  this  the  citizens  will  decide  as 
soon  as  they  shall  be  called  upon  to  pay,  rather 
than  plunder,  those  who  are  called  upon  to  protect 
them. 

It  will  be  perceived  by  those  who  may  acquaint 
themselves  with  the  foregoing  plan  of  Voluntary 
Enlistment,  £c.,  that  there  can  be  but  little  doubt 
of  an  immediate  organization  of  full  companies  un- 
der its  provisions,  in  as  much  as  paid  services 
are  more  readily  obtained  than  are  unpaid  ones  ; 
but  it  may  be  urged  as  an  objection,  that  so  soon 
as  the  citizens  of  towns  and  cities  shall  become  ab- 
solved from  involuntary  service,  through  the  organ- 
ization of  the  number  of  companies  required  to 
effect  their  freedom  from  the  burthen  of  military 
duty,  the  newly  organized  companies  will  immedi- 
ately disband,  and  the  State  be  left  without  a  mil- 
itary defence.  And  for  what  cause  ?  Will  they 
not  be  as  well  paid  as  they  are  for  other  services 
to  the  State  or  to  its  citizens  ?  If  not,  they  will 
be  in  duty  bound  to  withhold  their  protection  from 
those  who  may  be  unwilling  to  guarantee  to  them 
a  reciprocity  of  favors. 


ERRATA.  Page  24,  eleventh  line  from  the  top,  lor 
friend  read  friends.  Page  28,  ninth  line  from  the 
top,  lor  made  read  suffered. 


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